Category Archives: Favourites

I think I understand it.

Or do I?

But that’s the whole appeal of this film.  The complex.  The weird.  The crazy rabbit.

I like a film you can watch repeatedly and still find something new.  Each time I watch Donnie Darko I understand it a bit more.  And a bit less.

The film is based on paradox, time travel and alternative realities, all instigated by an imaginary rabbit, combining the best elements of science-fiction and family drama.  The narrative concerns a teenager dealing with the trials of school, family and girls.  In the process, he has hallucinations of Frank, the imaginary rabbit (or is he?), who warns of the end of the world.  The ambiguity and dark intrigue will have you guessing and second guessing the plot.  And when it ends, you’ll want to rewind and watch it all over again.

I leave you with two words: cellar door.

Screen 1: Frank

Donnie Darko . 2001 . Richard Kelly

Favourite Film, Ed Nightingale

Wake up, Donnie, to more film and music reviews over at Ed’s site http://thegizzlereview.blogspot.com/

This Powell-Pressburger psychological thriller is listed as one of the best British films ever, and not without reason. There’s lust, jealousy and revenge in the House of the Women, a Himalayan harem now home to a missionary. Whipped by the wind day in day out, five nuns are gradually stripped of their faith and faculties, teetering on more than one edge. The Oscar-winning cinematography and dramatic score underline the remote setting driving the sisterhood to distraction and death, with Noir-esque mirror shots and maddening drumming. Unusually for 1947, glorious Technicolor is used, contrasting the clifftop convent’s washed-out whites and greys with the lurid flower-filled valley and its colourful characters, from the crazy caretaker to the Englishman-gone-native. The acting is brilliant, especially “stiff-necked” Sister Clodagh and the increasingly erratic (and erotic) Sister Ruth with her wild eyes and red hair. There are even pygmy ponies.
Get thee to a nunnery.
Screen 1: Mad.
Black Narcissus . 1947 . Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Favourite film, Sarah-Clare Conlon
Keeping the faith at http://wordsandfixtures.blogspot.com/

Picture the scene: you’re old enough to drive your dad’s car and you’ve managed to convince a girl who’s a friend but not your girlfriend to come see a film. Disaster strikes – it’s sold out! You don’t want the evening to end here so you say, “Let’s watch this instead. I’ve heard good things about it”. The girl believes your story or doesn’t care about the lie and you wander in to the half-full auditorium with little hope for the film but plenty for the “relationship”.

Fifteen years on and the girl is long gone, a distant memory of earlier times but those two hours of storytelling magic are still with you.

It starts near the end, with bodies of half the cast strewn across the deck of an old boat and a middle aged Irishman staring down the barrel of a sideways-held pistol:

“I can’t feel my legs…Kaiser”

Screen 1: Memories

The Usual Suspects . 1995 . Bryan Singer

Favourite film, Isaac Gow

It’s a dank Monday night. Your ankle feels like it’s been run over by a fat man in steam roller. You reach for a film for solace and comfort. What do you go for, something existential and French, filmed in black and white and full of moody smokers? Or do you go for a favourite, one you know all the words to, the little flaws in the continuity, when you know when you’ll laugh and smile or stifle a tear with a yawn and stretch?

So you sit down with a cup of tea and a few rounds of white Warburton’s toast with peanut butter, spread yourself thinly across the coach and watch as the bromance unfolds like clothes from a well-packed suitcase. You marvel at the snappy dialogue and the homages to films you’ve seen and others you’ve yet to see and wonder why they’ve never repeated such excellence.

Screen 1: Homely

Swingers . 1996 . Doug Liman

Favourite film, Aaron Gow

Swing with Aaron over at http://troubleu.wordpress.com/

In my humble opinion, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the most perfect action/adventure film ever made.  It has the best hero, the most villainous villains, the funniest and most thrilling set pieces and pitch-perfect pacing.  And I haven’t even got to the very best thing about it; the way it makes me feel.  Whenever I sit down to watch Raiders, I am immediately transported back to being eight years old again.  I remember what it felt like to be so enthralled by a movie that all I wanted to do was watch it over again or play with my friends re-enacting key moments while we wrapped ourselves in a world of simple heroes and villains. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the film that started my lifelong love affair with movies and because of that no other film will ever be able to claim the crown as my favourite.

Raiders of the Lost Ark . 1981 . Steven Spielberg

Favourite film, Lee Moore

For further adventures with Lee visit ninetenthsfullofpenguins.blogspot.com/

Airplane! defined the funny bone I’ve spent my life poking friends with. It’s not just the Roger jokes and the Shirley jokes. The Zuckers ensured this movie trades as much on unspoken communication as the dialogue slugs in the remade Zero Hour script. So despite Airplane’s mastery of the one-liner, it’s the deadpan helplessness etched onto every character’s face that makes this a masterclass in comedy. This nightmare at 20,000 feet reverberates throughout Naked Gun, Wayne’s World, Anchorman, Spinal Tap and, um, Snakes On A Plane. Airplane! also taps into our deepest fears, of aeroplanes falling from stormy skies, of the claustrophobic melee of departure lounges, of guitarists absent-mindedly slaughtering our drip-fed daughters. With a glut of useless remakes stinking up our screens, and with the recent deaths of Airplaners Barbara Billingsley, Peter Graves and Leslie Nielsen, this would be the wrong year to quit my favourite movie. Roger that.

Screen 1: Serious.

Airplane! . 1980 . Jim Abrahams & David Zucker

Favourite film, Fat Roland

Visit
www.fatroland.com
for all your blow-up pilot dolls